Kim Kirchhoff

Kim studied Marine Sciences for three years at the University of Vigo (Spain) before earning her B.Sc. in Biology from the University of Kiel and her Master's in animal physiology and zoology from Justus Liebig University of Giessen (JLU, Germany). She completed her Ph.D. in 2020 through a collaborative project between JLU and Fraunhofer IME, focusing on stingray venom from evolutionary, biochemical, and pharmacological perspectives. She then gained experience at a mariculture company and a chemistry research consulting start-up center at Ruhr University Bochum (Germany). Kim joined the Holford Lab in the summer of 2024 to study the histological architecture of the posterior salivary gland in cephalopods, which produces venom. This research will be integrated with biochemical, pharmacological, and genetic data to develop a model venom system for cephalopods and enable comparisons to other marine venom systems, such as the vertebrate counterpart found in fishes.